4C
The Center for Closing the Carbon Cycle
4C is an interdisciplinary DOE-funded Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) that is establishing the science for integrating CO2 capture from dilute sources and the conversion of the captured product into carbon-based commodities. Headquartered at the University of California Irvine, this community brings together scientists and engineers from twelve universities and three national laboratories.
Over the past century, the use of fossil resources has enabled technological and industrial advancements that have let to transformative improvements to our standards of living. The legacy of these advancements however, is the release of CO2 into our atmosphere at a massive scale, impacting our climate and ecosystems. To mitigate these effects and transition to a society that is not reliant on limited fossil resources, 4C envisions the use of CO2 from air or point sources as a carbon feedstock.